Microsimulation model for motorway merges
with ramp-metering controls

Al-Obaedi, JTS; Yousif, S

Abstract

This paper presents a newly developed microsimulation model for motorway merge traffic, focusing on issues that relate to ramp-metering (RM) control and its effectiveness. The model deals with general and more specific drivers’ behavioral tasks, such as the drivers’ cooperative nature in allowing other drivers to merge in front of them either by decelerating or shifting to adjacent lanes. The main criteria of this model are governed by the application of car-following, lane-changing, and gap-acceptance rules. The model has been calibrated and validated mainly using real traffic data taken from loop detectors for two-, three-, and four-lane motorways. Compared with the S-PARAMICS software, using the same data, the model showed better results. The effectiveness of some of the widely used RM control algorithms, such as Demand-Capacity, ALINEA, and
ANCONA, were also assessed after finding the optimum parameters (such as critical occupancy and position of loop detectors).

Index Terms—Microsimulation, occupancy, ramp-metering
(RM) algorithms, travel time.

Citation

with ramp-metering controls. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 13(1), 296-306. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2011.2169792

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Mar 20, 2012
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Print ISSN: 1524-9050
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 296-306
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2011.2169792
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2011.2169792